Drive Traffic to Your Restaurant From Instagram

February 21,2019

You have a lot of restaurant equipment that you need to make your location run smoothly. You might think about your point-of-sale system, refrigeration units, cooking equipment, and more.

But what about Instagram?

That’s right, a social media platform can be one of the most important pieces of restaurant equipment you have access to. It can help you drive traffic from the internet into the seats of your restaurant.

Read on to learn more!

 

Show Gorgeous Pictures of Your Food

The first step on any social media platform is to gain positive attention. When you’re a restaurant on Instagram, it’s easy – just post gorgeous food pictures!

Of course, you need a way to link these back to your restaurant. Use hashtags to capture local followers and those who are interested in your particular cuisine.

With the right pictures and hashtags, you’ll create an instantly recognizable brand – pun intended!

 

Link in Bio!

Have you noticed that almost every Instagram post includes the phrase, “Link in Bio?”

That’s because that link is the only clickable link in your entire profile. So think carefully about how to use it. It doesn’t have to go to your homepage. It could link to your menu, a promotion, or even your Google Business page.

Use a trackable link so you can keep tabs on how popular your link on Instagram is, and test different calls to action.

 

Let Your Fans Do the Sharing

One of the things that hasn’t changed over the years when it comes to marketing is how much people trust recommendations – even online. 84% of people trust online reviews just as much as a personal recommendation.

How do you get fans to share? Many times it’s just as simple as asking them to!

People often take pictures of your food anyway – take advantage of it by encouraging them to mention your restaurant, use specific hashtags, and more.

You can even run contests based on Instagram posts. It will get your restaurant attention beyond your own network – you’ll be leveraging your guests’ networks as well.

When you realize you can use not only your followers but your guests’, you’ll see why Instagram is a vital part of your restaurant equipment.

 

Bring in the Customers

You’ve got attention, you’ve got positive recommendations from your guests, and you may even have a link to your current specials.

Those items alone will do a lot to turn Instagram users into restaurant customers. But you can take one more step – you can specifically post invitations to come into your location.

Whether it’s a seasonal special, a happy hour, or a coupon, you can give your followers an extra incentive to come in. Incentives work best if there’s a sense of urgency, so think about how you can create limits. Maybe only the first 100 guests on a Wednesday get a special deal, or the coupon expires in three days.

Turning attention into customers is what makes Instagram one of the most important pieces of restaurant equipment you have!

 

What Other Restaurant Equipment Do You Need?

While Instagram and social media are a vital way to bring in business, there may be other nagging needs in your restaurant. Is your commercial stove on its last legs? Are you concerned that your freezer isn’t holding temperature?

If you have these sorts of concerns, we have great news for your Little Rock restaurant. We have a long history of helping owners like you get the restaurant equipment you need. Contact us to see how we can help you today!

Kitchen Equipment: Choosing the Right Cutting Board

Kitchen Equipment: Choosing the Right Cutting Board

Every kitchen, from a food truck to a large restaurant, needs cutting boards. From vegetables to bread to meat and fish, your chefs and cooks have to chop things every day. Have you put a lot of thought into this important piece of kitchen equipment? Like many other...

read more
Catering to Generation Z

Catering to Generation Z

As time marches on, we continue to have new generations arising behind the ones we’ve already named. Most recently everyone has been focused on Millennials, whose tech-savvy and focus on experiences over things have shifted the face of every industry. Now, there’s a...

read more
4 Ways to Keep Your Restaurant Employees Engaged

4 Ways to Keep Your Restaurant Employees Engaged

You can have everything you need to run an amazing restaurant – a great menu, incredible chef, the best location, perfect pricing, and top-of-the-line kitchen equipment. But even with all of that, you won’t succeed if your employees are disengaged and unprofessional....

read more
Kitchen Fun : Food and the Oscars

Kitchen Fun : Food and the Oscars

Hollywood’s biggest night was February 24th, 2019, and was it ever a show. There were stars, glitz, glamour, and amazing outfits everywhere. There were also cameras catching every moment, from the red carpet to the after-parties. What happened at the show and after...

read more
4 Keys to Successful Commercial Kitchen Design

4 Keys to Successful Commercial Kitchen Design

If you’re opening a new restaurant or renovating your existing kitchen, you probably already have some ideas about how it should look. However, it’s important to look beyond your own ideas and understand the keys to good design in general. This will help you...

read more
Bring Together Your Back and Front of House

Bring Together Your Back and Front of House

Does your restaurant feel like a simmering battle between the back of house (BOH) and front of house (FOH)? Or do both units get along famously? If your restaurant is like many, you find yourself somewhere in the middle. Rarely do you have an all-out war, but...

read more
Commercial Kitchen Fun: Cooking With Mustard

Commercial Kitchen Fun: Cooking With Mustard

One of the things that make owning a restaurant so fun is the ability to be creative with your menu. With the help of your chef and cooks, you can come up with some really fun dishes to serve. To get your imagination going, we’re going to share some fun dishes that...

read more
Handling Theft in Your Convenience Store

Handling Theft in Your Convenience Store

Running a convenience store is challenging to say the least. You need to staff it, but not with too many people. Then again, too few and you have a lot of problems – including theft. There are three groups that can be responsible for product and money loss in your...

read more
Kitchen Equipment Spotlight: How Clean is Your Coffee Pot?

Kitchen Equipment Spotlight: How Clean is Your Coffee Pot?

If you were going to rank kitchen equipment based on how much work it does, the humble coffee pot has to be near the top. In almost every restaurant, people order coffee with their meal or dessert. The problem is that because the coffee pot is working so hard, it...

read more
Should You Add a Food Truck to Your Restaurant?

Should You Add a Food Truck to Your Restaurant?

If your restaurant is doing well, you might be thinking about opening a second location. After all, that’s usually the next step when it’s time to expand, right? Before you jump in, though, consider another option. Maybe having a food truck would be a better choice....

read more
Take Advantage of Your Customer’s Technology

Take Advantage of Your Customer’s Technology

Some restaurant owners hate seeing customers snapping photos of food – it means that the food isn’t eaten at its best, and sometimes it’s a sign of a table that’s going to be slow to turn over. Then there are other owners and managers who see an opportunity. The truth...

read more
How to Reduce Turnover at Your Restaurant

How to Reduce Turnover at Your Restaurant

Having the right employees can make or break your restaurant. You can have the best food and kitchen supplies, but tension in the back of the house can cause delays, poor morale, and even the loss of key staff. You can have a beautiful dining room, but surly wait...

read more
Should Your Commercial Kitchen Consider Catering?

Should Your Commercial Kitchen Consider Catering?

As a business owner, it’s important to always be looking for new ways to grow your business. There are a lot of ways to do this, and one of the most common for many restaurants is catering. Of course, catering changes how your commercial kitchen runs a lot of the...

read more
Why Your Restaurant Needs an App

Why Your Restaurant Needs an App

We know, you’re a restaurant owner, not a developer or programmer. Let other people worry about apps, you just want to run your restaurant! The truth is if you want to have a successful establishment, you have to take advantage of the technology that brings people in....

read more